Water seepage, slush caused Solan-Shimla road cave-in

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, August 12

Slush generated from seepage of water from a nullah lying at the base of the road at Shamlech, whose 50-m stretch had caved in yesterday, eroded the road on the Solan-Shimla section of National Highway No. 5.

Survey soon to identify vulnerable areas

• Since instances of the road having caved in had occurred in the past too on the Parwanoo-Solan section, a geo-technical survey will be done to identify vulnerable sites prone to landslides.
• The survey will also help understand whether the design was faulty or the executing company failed to adhere to the requisite measures while constructing the road at the affected site

Though a culvert had been constructed to regulate the flow of water from the nullah it did not prove effective.

Team of officials from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and officials of the GR Infraprojects, who executed the four-laning work, made this observation after inspecting the affected site at Shamlech today. Officials from the district administration were also present at the inspection.

Since such instances of the road having caved in had occurred in the past too on the 39-km stretch of Parwanoo-Solan section of the highway, it has been decided to undertake a geo-technical survey to identify vulnerable sites prone to landslides.

The four-laning of this road was completed in June 2021 even though some additional structures like a viaduct bridge were being constructed at Parwanoo.

Ram Asra Khural, Project Director, NHAI, said, “A team of geo-technical experts from Delhi would soon visit the affected site and undertake a technical survey on the entire 39-km stretch to identify vulnerable sites prone to landslides. Staff of GR Infraprojects will assist the team.”

“Apart from soil testing, they will examine aspects like design to ascertain the cause of this mishap and suggest appropriate engineering strategies to plug the loopholes,” informed Khural.

The survey will also help understand whether the design was faulty or the executing company failed to adhere to the requisite measures while constructing road at the affected site.

Since the affected road leads to the one-sided flyover, it has been closed for vehicular traffic and vehicles were diverted from the road.

Staff of GR Infraprojects erected signage at various places to warn motorists about the diversion of road from both the Kumarhatti and Solan end.

The construction of this Rs 748 crore stretch has been mired in controversy ever since its work began in September 2015. Initially, the use of crate wires to construct retaining walls which gave way in the very first monsoons had cast doubts over the design used to construct the highway. Later, low breast walls of 1.5 m to 3 m which failed to contain the landslides put a question mark over the design. These handicaps were overcome later by making need-based modifications in the design.

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